Exclusive: The New York Times continues its sorry pattern of falsifying the record on Russia-gate, giving its readers information that the newspaper knows not to be true, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
If Russia-gate is the massive scandal that we are told it is by so many Important People — across the U.S. mainstream media and the political world — why do its proponents have to resort to lies and exaggerations to maintain the pillars supporting the narrative?
The New York Times building in Manhattan. (Photo credit: Robert Parry)
A new example on Thursday was The New York Times’ statement that a Russian agency “spent $100,000 on [Facebook’s] platform to influence the United States presidential election last year” – when the Times knows that statement is not true.
According to Facebook, only 44 percent of that amount appeared before the U.S. presidential election in 2016 (i.e., $44,000) and few of those ads addressed the actual election. And, we know that the Times is aware of the truth because it was acknowledged in a Times article in early October.
As part of that article, Times correspondents Mike Isaac and Scott Shane reported that the ads also covered a wide range of other topics: “There was even a Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies that spread across the site with the help of paid ads.”
As nefarious as the Times may think it is for Russians to promote a Facebook page about “adorable puppies,” the absurdity of that concern – and the dishonesty of the Times then “forgetting” what it itself reported just two months ago about the timing and contents of these “Russian-linked ads” – tells you a great deal about Russia-gate.
On Thursday, the Times chose to distort what it already knew to be true presumably because it didn’t want to make the $100,000 ad buy (which is not a particularly large sum) look even smaller and less significant by acknowledging the pre-election total was less than half that modest amount – and even that total had little to do with the election.
Why would the Times lie? Because to tell the truth would undercut the narrative of evil Russians defeating Hillary Clinton and putting Donald Trump in the White House – the core narrative of Russia-gate.
Another relevant fact is that Facebook failed to find any “Russian-linked” ads during its first two searches and only detected the $100,000 after a personal visit from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a leading legislator on Internet regulation.
In other words, Facebook’s corporate executives dredged up something to appease Warner. That way, Warner and the Democrats could blame Russia for the Trump presidency, sparing further criticism of Clinton’s dreadful campaign (in which she labeled half of Trump’s voters “deplorables”) and her neo-liberal economic policies (and neo-conservative foreign policies) that have alienated much of America’s working class as well as many progressives.
Leaving Out Context
The Times also might have put the $100,000 in “Russian-linked” ads over a two-year period in the context of Facebook’s $27 billion in annual revenue, but the Times didn’t do that – apparently because it would make even the full $100,000 look like a pittance.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the third presidential debate in 2016, during which Clinton called Trump Vladimir Putin’s “puppet.”
Trimming the total down to $44,000 and admitting that only a few of those ads actually dealt with Clinton and Trump would be even worse for the Russia-gate narrative.
Ironically, the Times’ latest false depiction of the $100,000 in ads as designed “to influence” the 2016 election appeared in an article about Facebook determining that other Russian-linked ads, which supposedly had a powerful effect on Great Britain’s Brexit vote, totaled just three ads at the cost of 97 cents. (That is not a misprint.)
According to Facebook, the three ads, which focused on immigration, were viewed some 200 times by Britons over four days in May 2016. Of course, the response from British parliamentarians who wanted to blame the Brexit vote on Moscow was to assert that Facebook must have missed something. It couldn’t be that many Britons had lost faith in the promise of the European Union for their own reasons.
We have seen a similar pattern with allegations about Russian interference in German and French elections, with the initial accusations being widely touted but not so much the later conclusions by serious investigations knocking down the claims. [See, for instance, Consortiumnews.com’s “German Intel Clears Russia on Interference.”]
The only acceptable conclusion, it seems, is “Russia Guilty!”
These days in Official Washington, it has become almost forbidden to ask for actual evidence that would prove the original claim that Russia “hacked” Democratic emails, even though the accusation came from what President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged were “hand-picked” analysts from the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency.
These “hand-picked” analysts produced the evidence-lite Jan. 6 “assessment” about Russia “hacking” the emails and slipping them to WikiLeaks – a scenario denied by both WikiLeaks and Russia.
When that “assessment” was released almost a year ago, even the Times’ Scott Shane noticed the lack of proof, writing: “What is missing from the [the Jan. 6] public report is what many Americans most eagerly anticipated: hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack. … Instead, the message from the agencies essentially amounts to ‘trust us.’”
But the Times soon “forgot” what Shane had inconveniently noted and began reporting the Russian “hacking” as accepted wisdom.
The 17-Agencies Canard
Whenever scattered expressions of skepticism arose from a few analysts or non-mainstream media, the doubts were beaten back by the claim that “all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies” concurred in the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the hacking to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. And what kind of nut would doubt the collective judgment of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies!
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (right) talks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, with John Brennan and other national security aides present. (Photo credit: Office of Director of National Intelligence)
Though the 17-agency canard was never true, it served an important purpose in establishing the Russia-gate groupthink. Wielding the “all 17 intelligence agencies” club, the U.S. mainstream media pounded politicians and policymakers into line, making any remaining skeptics seem more out of step and crazy.
So, in May 2017, when Clapper (along with former CIA Director John Brennan) admitted in congressional testimony that it wasn’t true that all 17 agencies concurred in the Russian hacking conclusion, those statements received very little attention in the mainstream media.
The New York Times among other major news outlets just continued asserting the 17-agency falsehood until the Times was finally pressured to correct its lie in late June, but that only led to the Times shifting to slightly different but still misleading wording, citing a “consensus” among the intelligence agencies without mentioning a number or by simply stating the unproven hacking claim as flat fact.
Even efforts to test the Russian-hack claims through science were ignored or ridiculed. When former NSA technical director William Binney conducted experiments that showed that the known download speed of one batch of DNC emails could not have occurred over the Internet but matched what was possible for a USB-connected thumb drive — an indication that a Democratic insider likely downloaded the emails and thus that there was no “hack” — Binney was mocked as a “conspiracy theorist.”
Even with the new disclosures about deep-seated anti-Trump bias in text messages exchanged between two senior FBI officials who played important early roles in the Russia-gate investigation, there is no indication that Official Washington is willing to go back to the beginning and see how the Russia-gate story might have been deceptively spun.
In a recently released Aug. 15, 2016 text message from Peter Strzok, a senior FBI counterintelligence official, to his reputed lover, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Strzok referenced an apparent plan to keep Trump from getting elected before suggesting the need for “an insurance policy” just in case he did. A serious investigation into Russia-gate might want to know what these senior FBI officials had in mind.
But the Times and other big promoters of Russia-gate continue to dismiss doubters as delusional or as covering up for Russia and/or Trump. By this point – more than a year into this investigation – too many Important People have bought into the Russia-gate narrative to consider the possibility that there may be little or nothing there, or even worse, that it is the “insurance policy” that Strzok envisioned.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
I wonder how much the New York Slimes has spent to promote the Russia narrative that they have been yapping about since last November? Not to mention their cohorts the Washington Compost, the Morning Schmo on MSNBC, and the many liars from the Democrat officiary that keep trying to hype this story.
Trump Falls in Line with Interventionism
September 19, 2017
Exclusive: President Trump’s U.N. speech showed that despite his America First rhetoric, his policies are virtually the same as the neocon strategies of George W. Bush and liberal interventionism of Barack Obama, says Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
In discussing President Trump, there is always the soft prejudice of low expectations – people praise him for reading from a Teleprompter even if his words make little sense – but there is no getting around the reality that his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly must rank as one of the most embarrassing moments in America’s relations with the global community.
President Trump speaking to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 19, 2017. (Screenshot from Whitehouse.gov)
Trump offered a crude patchwork of propaganda and bluster, partly delivered as a campaign speech praising his own leadership – boasting about the relatively strong U.S. economy that he mostly inherited from President Obama – and partly reflecting his continued subservience to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, perhaps most importantly, Trump’s speech may have extinguished any flickering hope that his presidency might achieve some valuable course corrections in how the United States deals with the world, i.e., shifting away from the disastrous war/interventionist policies of his two predecessors.
Although I really do appreciate Abe’s detailed outing of the trolls intruding into our serious discussion, on the other hand I feel it is wise for the rest of us to follow the classic rule for dealing with trolls: DON’T FEED THEM! They thrive on lengthy debates to air their nonsense propaganda. Having once clearly identified these disruptive agents, as Abe has so skillfully done, it’s time to simply ignore their rants, and proceed in our discussion as if they have said nothing – which is in fact true.
Julia Ioffe’s reporting in the Atlantic is well worth a read.
“Great on Israel” Julia Ioffe was born in Moscow, to a Russian Jewish family that immigrated to the United States in 1990 when Ioffe was 7.
https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/826098388701704193
According to Ioffe, her family was were “fleeing anti-Semitism” in the Soviet Union.
An undergraduate history major specializing in Soviet history, Ioffe began her “journalistic” career as a fact checker for The New Yorker. She later worked as the Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker and Foreign Policy magazine.
In 2012, Ioffre became a senior editor for The New Republic magazine, a publication that provides active support for the Israeli government and a hawkish U.S. foreign policy. On domestic policy, it has generally supported Democratic candidates for president.
Ioffe’s “journalistic” work includes tirades against Russian president Vladimir Putin, and she declared the RT news network a “Kremlin mouthpiece”.
Ioffre is a key operator in an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda initiative purportedly involving anti-Semitic targeting of journalists during the 2016 presidential campaign. Ioffe used the Inverted Hasbara “attacks” to target Russia, associating purported social media “threats” with “all of this horrible antisemitic shit that I’ve only ever seen in Russia”.
In short, “well worth a read” Ioffre is a “journalistic” agent of the pro-Israel Lobby and a fairly rabid anti-Russia propagandist.
Posted 10/3/2017
Facebook says an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. saw at least one of the 3,000 political ads it says were bought by accounts linked to the Russian government.
The figure, disclosed by Facebook for the first time on Monday, underscores how effective Russian meddling on social media could be with even a minimal investment.
The ad buyers spent just $100,000 over two years to target 10 million people, according to figures Facebook has provided about the ad buys. That’s an audience roughly equivalent to the population of Michigan.
More than half of the ads were seen after the 2016 presidential election, indicating that Russian efforts went well beyond meddling during the campaign and may continue to this day.
“Forty-four percent of the ads were seen before the U.S. election on Nov. 8, 2016, fifty-six percent were seen after the election,” Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president for policy and communications, said in a new post on Monday.
Schrage acknowledged it was “possible” that there were more Russian-bought political ads on the network that Facebook has yet to identify.
Is this supposed to be a joke or what? Good for a laugh but not much else
Whose cash are you angling for Bill? The Russia bashers?
“The ad buyers spent just $100,000 over two years to target 10 million people…” OK – 10MM targeted, but how many clicks-in?
ArchitectGuy on Israel
Israel, the Mideast + Politics
Exclusive Interview: How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House
by Steven Bertoni
December 20, 2016
…“It’s hard to overstate and hard to summarize Jared’s role in the campaign,” says billionaire Peter Thiel, the only significant Silicon Valley figure to publicly back Trump. “If Trump was the CEO, Jared was effectively the chief operating officer.”…But by running the Trump campaign–notably, its secret data operation–like a Silicon Valley startup, Kushner eventually tipped the states that swung the election. And he did so in manner that will change the way future elections will be won and lost…CONTROLLED, UNDERSTATED and calm, Jared Kushner couldn’t be more different from his father-in-law in personality and style.
Related
The Flynn-Kushner-Israel footnote – “Israel was lobbying furiously against the UN resolution and Trump team spoke up–post election–on behalf of the Jewish state”
In “Israel & Middle East”
http://architectguy.me/2016/11/22/jared-kushner-and-trump
The shame is that so-called Russia Gate runs interference for all the undoing projects Trump is succeeding with… .
case in point.
“Paul Ryan’s plans for Medicare are scary”
by Errol Louis; CNN;
12/08/2017
“Next year we’re going to have to get back at entitlement reform,” Ryan said on a Wisconsin radio talk show, calling Medicare the “biggest entitlement that’s got to have reform.”
It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while you should take Paul Ryan at his word. And this is one of those times. Ominously.
And how is the GOP planning on pulling this off? By doing the ol’ GOP three-step: cut taxes to drive up the deficits and then rail about deficits, demand spending cuts, and make those spending cuts a reality. Spending cuts that are going to be entitlement cuts this time. It’s the “time-inconsistency” strategy but applied over a compressed time-frame of just a couple of years:
…
For a certain type of hard-right conservative Republican, Reagan’s call remains relevant and urgent to this day. Having failed to repeal Medicare outright — the program is wildly popular, serving more than 55 million seniors (about 15% of the US population, says AARP) and disabled Americans — Republicans have moved to a three-part “starve the beast” strategy.
Part one is to slash taxes and drastically lower the amount of revenue available to the federal government. The tax bill that GOP majorities recently approved in both houses of Congress accomplishes that nicely, adding $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit under the most optimistic economic scenario, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
Part two of the plan is to suddenly recoil in horror at the fact of the budget deficit (yes, the same one that Republicans happily conjured up by cutting taxes). Ryan’s radio interview is a step in that direction. “Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt,” he said — just days after happily adding a trillion to the tab with tax cuts.
Piling up debt and deficits sets the stage for the third and concluding strategy: to lower the debt by dialing back Medicare eligibility, lowering the benefits and otherwise crippling the program.
…
And that’s all part of the stated GOP agenda for next year according to the House Speaker.
So if the GOP guts Medicare and Social Security like Paul Ryan is predicting, hopefully the government won’t need to gut the safety-net for poor quite as much to pay for the tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Although the GOP wants to cuts all of these programs regardless of whether or not its ostensibly to pay for a trickle-down tax cut so we should probably expect maximum cuts for the poor regardless of circumstance.
POSTED BY PTERRAFRACTYL | DECEMBER 12, 2017, 12:06 AM
http://www.spitfirelist.com/news/
http://thesaker.is/did-the-cia-stop-a-bloodbath-in-saint-petersburg-a-few-wild-guesses/
There isn’t an essay here for which this is a truly relevant comment, but the name “Russia” is in the title and I’m going to say that’s “Close Enough”.
Did the CIA stop a bloodbath in Saint Petersburg?
The Saker has some comments about this, and unfortunately his remarks make all too much sense.
It’s my opinion the entire thing was part of a US Neocon operation. If the Russians were indeed “wide open”, the fallout would have been unprecedented as soon as they found US fingerprints all over the operation. The Victoria Nuland faction of the neocons just don’t care, and the rage of the Russians might have led to things which made the takeover of Crimea look minor.
The NYT was a part of the Hillary campaign, and this is carry over. They never stopped.
And, Piotr, the point is, what’s the reason for this hyperventilation by the West? This just comes down to meanness and hatefulness on the part of the (mis)leaders. I’ve seen some YouTube videos that are shocking in showing ignorance of young Americans regarding basic history, not even knowing which side won America’s Civil War nor why it was fought! If humans can’t pull together as decent people, everywhere, we are doomed.
From “Russia Insider” today, an article by Rob Slane states that Russia topped all other countries in literacy achievement, the PIRLS (Progress in Reading Literacy Study) by the IEA, International Education Association. The response by western countries is that this cannot be, it is fake, and there is discussion of further sanctions on Russia such as withholding of reading materials.
How much more utter madness dp we need before we take some action on detente with Russia? We all need to speak out.
I checked Wikipedia. Russia has “fairly high” UNESCO reported literacy rate, 99.7%, but a bunch of countries have 99.8% while, say, Italy has 98.3% and so on. I guess this percentage depends on definition and sample. Concerning the sample, some percentage of the population has severe mental or neurological problems preventing them from learning to read and write, and it could well exceed 0.2%, and it is possible that some countries remove them from the sample, some not. Concerning the definition, one could be checking comprehension in reading, and that depends on vocabulary. English in particular seems to have excessively large vocabulary, and children that can actually spell almost all words and can explain what they mean compete in “Spelling Bee” contest and it is not easy. I checked without intending to do it that only small percentage of Ph. D.’s in Computer Science understand the word “cloture” (apparently, few of them watch C-SPAN) and small percentage of Ph. D. students understand the word “dearth” (but those who thought that this is “death” were mostly East Asian). Also, one could wish the ability to write with correct spelling. Few languages have ortophonic writing system, if you know how to pronounce you know how to spell. In languages like Polish, Russian and German you have more of a problem because some sounds can be written in two ways, occasionally a letter is silent etc. In English the relationship between correct sound and writing is very loose. In Chinese is none.
So, if we require correct spelling and take the sample of commenters at major news web sites, Poland would be rather backward, but that reflect very relaxed attitude to comments — everything goes, spelling mistakes, insults, assorted kinds of “political incorrectness” etc. By comparison, The Guardian is policing comments quite vigorously. I suspect that NYT is quite selective in accepting comments, and on topics like Russia, they are ruthless, you can see much smaller scope of opinions than on Syria, Israel etc. I never succeeded to see my comment in NYT.
as i recall, nobody liked hillary. was that why nobody bothered voting?
I think lots of people voted for Hillary but after Bill made so many felons out of members of the black community for smoking cocaine instead of snorting it…that they had sort of a hard time getting up off the bench for his wife.
Hyperbolic headline aside, this is a must-read…
Why Glenn Greenwald Deserves a Pulitzer Prize
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/251387/why-glenn-greenwald-deserves-a-pulitzer-prize
Hold the applause for the “must-read” article by Lee Smith, a senior fellow at the right wing Hudson Institute.
TabletMag and other media outlets are furiously backpedaling on notion that Trump is bad because he colluded with Russian officials, precisely because the evidence of Trump’s collusion points to Israel.
TabletMag conspicuously neglects to mention the Israel, other than to inform us that Greenwald’s purported “attacks on Israel” are “gross”.
The Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. based think tank, is part of pro-Israel Lobby web of militaristic security policy institutes that promote Israel-centric U.S. foreign policy.
The LinkedIn page of George Papadopoulos, a low-level Trump foreign policy adviser, lists his association with the right wing Hudson Institute. Papadopoulos admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts.
Papadopoulos is directly connected to the pro-Israel Lobby, right wing Israeli political interests, and Israeli government efforts to control regional energy resources.
The Hudson Institute confirmed that Papadopoulos was an intern who left the neoconservative think tank in 2014.
In 2014, Papadopoulos authored op-ed pieces in Israeli publications.
In an op-ed published in Arutz Sheva, media organ of the right wing Religionist Zionist movement embraced by the Israeli “settler” movement, Papadopoulos argued that the U.S. should focus on its “stalwart allies” Israel, Greece, and Cyprus to “contain the newly emergent Russian fleet”.
In another op-ed published in Ha’aretz, Papadopoulos contended that Israel should exploit its natural gas resources in partnership with Cyprus and Greece rather than Turkey.
In November 2015, Papadapalous participated in a conference in Tel Aviv, discussing the export of natural gas from Israel with a panel of current and past Israeli government officials including Ron Adam, a representative of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Eran Lerman, a former Israeli Deputy National Security Adviser.
Israel’s coming planned military assault on Lebanon and Syria has a lot to do with natural gas resources, both offshore from Gaza and on land in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights region.
Among its numerous violations of United Nations Resolution 242, Israel annexed the Syrian Golan Heights in 1981.
Geopolitical researcher F. William Engdahl has discussed the energy resources in the Golan Heights, Israel, and Trump
http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO30Mar2017.php
Engdahl notes “we might find ourselves in another war for oil in of all places the Golan Heights, this one a war involving Syria, Russia, Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah on one side and Israel and Rex Tillerson’s 68 nation ‘anti-ISIS coalition’ on the other side, another senseless war over control of oil.”
Even more “must-read” from Lee Smith, a senior editor at the neocon Weekly Standard, flagship journal of the American right wing and principal media organ of the pro-Israel Lobby.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/lee-smith
Known for his belligerent defense of hawkish U.S. and Israeli policies, Smith was formerly a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Founded in the wake of the 9/11 attacks with the goal of pushing an aggressive “war on terror” in the Middle East and “pro-Israel” policies in Washington, FDD is the successor organization of a group called EMET, an education initiative founded earlier in 2001 as part of an effort to gain support for Israel’s response to the Palestinian Intifada and to diminish public outcry against Israeli actions.
FDD “experts” like Smith have been leading advocates of U.S. military intervention in Middle East, particularly in Iran and Syria. They were vocal supporters of the war in Iraq, have promoted hardline policies on Iran including overturning the historic nuclear deal, and advocated one-sided U.S. support for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians.
Smith contributes to several media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, where he has frequently lambasted the purported weakness of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, attacked writers who are critical of Israeli policies as being “anti-Semitic”, and promotes hardline pro-Israel views of Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hi Abe-
Just for the heck of it, I read GM’s link to the Greenwald article. I’m sure there is a lot of stuff I disagree with Lee Smith about, especially his protection of Israeli policy, but this article does seem to be largely truthful, at least as I see it.
Hi Skip,
Let’s be very careful here.
GM’s link was not to an article by Glen Greenwald, but to an article by neocon con artist Les Smith.
Smith’s TabletMag screed attempts to spin Greenwald’s reporting on the American media narrative concerning Trump’s purported collusion.
The “fake news” fetish of the mainstream American press, led by all those Google-sponsored “First Draft” coalition “verification” scam purveyors, has been very well documented by numerous independent investigative journalists.
Greenwald’s reporting on mainstream media “fake news” narratives is far from exceptional, and in many respects Greenwald conspicuously deflects from where these false media narratives actually lead.
So what the article says about Greenwald is insignificant compared to what Smith doesn’t say about the Russia-gate imbroglio:
The facts make it increasingly obvious that the primary agent of interference in American elections and foreign policy is Israel.
Hi Abe-
Yeah, I should have said the article about Glenn Greenwald. Also, I suspect that you are right in that Smith attempts to divert attention from IsraelGate.
From the article:
“I’m not generally a big fan of Greenwald. His attacks on Israel are gross; His continued defense of Edward Snowden, who turned over information to an adversary that may endanger American lives, seems, at best, naïve and self-serving.”
That said, the remainder of the article showing the MSM propaganda is pretty much the way I see it, Smith just tries to shift the blame away from the Zionists who, let’s face it, control much of the MSM.
More “must-see” reading from Lee Smith
https://www.hudson.org/experts/238-lee-smith
Check out Smith’s interview with rabid neocon walrus and AIPAC darling, John Bolton.
Another ‘beat a dead horse’ story. Another 50 plus comments, or rather CONments. NONE asking the question that should be asked by ourselves and the author. That question being…. why has Russia not called out Israel and the house of Saud, for their obvious ‘meddling’ in American ‘democracy’? Ask the question people. Or are you afraid of the answer you get? Not asking the question makes ALL of this site and many more nothing more than Quixotic. Preaching to the choir and tilting at windmills appears to be a pastime around here.
Not so at all. That issue has been raised often here in articles, and in the comments to nearly all Russia-gate articles. See articles discussing Israel-gate for example. Perhaps you missed that?
The issue of ‘Saudi gate’ ‘Israel gate’ sure, why Russia refuses to point this out, not so much. Perhaps anon would care to point out the article that discusses the reasons Russia does not do this, or a link to the discussion in the comments here, as yes I have obviously missed this.
For many comments in Russia-gate articles on CN regarding Israel-gate, just search for “Israel.”
Regarding Russia pointing out the US-Israel connection, Putin himself was recently reported to have made this connection. Try RT, AntiWar dotcom, InformationClearingHouse dotinfo, TruthDig dotcom, CounterPunch dotorg, etc. where there have been several over the last few weeks. Also try Chris Hedges, Juan Cole, Chris Floyd, MoonOfAlabama, LandDestroyer, Paul Roberts, even Ron Paul. But everyone knows of USG dominance by zionists, so it is not really news these days unless the US accuses Russia or others of such influence.
Specifically why or reasons behind Russia’s reason for not calling them out……Nada…..The other stuff sure there is lots, NONE of it covers why Russia just doesn’t logic bomb the states. Other than they are part of the scam I can’t come up with any reason why, hence my asking here…only to be accused of being Hasbera , which in and of itself tells me a lot…No?
Well, the most suspect source of criticism of the Russia-gate hysteria would be Russia, so they are better off letting others do that, so they are not suspected of “protesting too much” which would be taken as evidence against them. So there seems to be no basis for suspicion that they haven’t denied this enough.
Russian officials have made denials of each new specific accusation in the Russiagate charade. Those denials are expected and therefore not newsworthy or interesting as news. I can’t spend the day looking for them, you will have to do that yourself.
See Giraldi’s article for the Israelgate connection, and several others of that week, at
https://www.globalresearch.ca/russiagate-becomes-israelgate/5621769
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll and hilarious “WC” doppelgänger, “Tannenhouser” can’t come up with any reason why anybody would mention Israel.
Nada.
Not one.
Which in and of itself tells us a lot
https://blog.codinghorror.com/content/images/2015/04/obvious-troll-is-obvious.jpg
You would think the Russians would mention how Mueller tried to shake his agents off the trail of the Saudi government officials and royal family that clearly supported some of the 9/11 terrorists while they were in the states learning to fly (and attending strip clubs). As the law suit by various 9/11 survivors gets closer to going to court it is very clear that the Saudi govt. gave the hijackers cash, shelter and even at least one free trip to Sea World. It does seem odd that wikileaks can’t come up with anything, either.
You would think the Israelis, with like the most awesomest intelligence ever, who’ve been insisting for nearly four decades that Iran would have nuclear weapons in six months, would be screaming to high heaven about their new BFF: the Saudi government officials and royal family that clearly supported some of the 9/11 terrorists.
Now, back to Israel, and the mounting evidence of Israeli collusion, political interference and terrorism.
Like his pal(s) “Tannenhouser” / “WC” who is/are loudly fascinated by “possibility”, comrade “Bill” prefers to loudly “guess” a lot.
It does seem odd.
“Bill’s” best “guess” is that “Trump is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian oligarchy”.
Another impressive “guess” from “Bill” is “7 million Jews being exterminated” in the Second World War.
In fact, an estimated 7.4 million Soviet civilians, including 1.3 Soviet Jewish civilians (who are included in the estimated 6 million figure for European Jews during in the Nazi Holocaust) died as a result of direct, intentional actions of violence during World War II. Russian sources generally include Soviet Jewish Holocaust deaths among total civilian dead.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008193
An additional 2.1 million Soviet civilian deaths of forced laborers in Germany, and 4.1 million Soviet civilian
deaths due to famine and disease in Nazi occupied regions brings the total Soviet non-military death toll to approximately 13.6 million.
No doubt the Russians “get sick of hearing about” the sort of “guesses” that “Tannenhouser” / “WC” and “Bill” like to “debate” about.
Putin and Lavrov perhaps realize that have to pick their fights carefully. Just speculating.
Why? The fight has already been picked, are they that afraid of an ‘antisemite’ label? Putin is apparently responsible for kicking out the ‘Jewish’ oligarchs from Russia, that would already have earned his antisemite label, no? What could they be afraid of do you think Gregory?
I don’t think cowardice factors in. They are realistic and sober about the existential threat posed by the U.S., but certainly know how to take care of themselves. They have repeatedly used the phrase “minding their own business” and apparently feel a need to conduct relations accordingly without getting into pissing contests or pointing too many fingers. The (few) adults on the world stage know the score anyway.
They have answered the accusations of “interference” with “democracy” and perhaps feel that stating the obvious about Israeli or Saudi influence in the U.S. would merely be interpreted as deflection because they aren’t going to change the minds that are against them anyway. Staying above the fray looks better to neutrals and the friends they have. They are trying to expand trade and multi-lateral relations and perhaps are keeping their cards and leverage close to the chest for now for good reason.
I don’t know Tannenhouser…your point is well taken. But others have pointed out the truth of Israeli influence (influence not a strong enough word) on the U.S…. including right here at home. Who is listening anyway?
I suspect you are right Gregory. Putin is a real statesman, ever mindful of the long game. He even still calls us “partners.” I think he even tried to do a natural gas development deal with Netanyahu, if I recall correctly.
I tend to agree Gregg and Skip. However…. I can’t shake this feeling that they are all playing for the same side
You do know the Christian Bible is the baby of the Jewish Bible or Talmud right? Could it be that Christians feel kinship with israel because Jesus was born there?
Certainly, there are certain Christians feel a sort of kinship with Israel in the sense that they need the Israelites to be in a certain geographical area for Armageddon to be a certainty. Then all the Jews in Israel, having served their purpose, will burn in hell for eternity. this would be your VP Pence and (former) judge Moore type Christians. One thing that sort of confuses me is Trumpkin’s desire to both stir up the rank and file American anti-Semites at home and at the same time move the embassy to Jerusalem and otherwise, along with his son in law; suck the cock of Netanyahu and do things all those things that the rank and file American anti-Semites fear… It does beg the question as to whether anti-Semitism is something Israel actively promotes d/t the useful victim status it confers . One thing for sure, you want to have your post at Talking Points Memo get taken down in less than a minute, just mention that maybe the reason Trumpkin failed to properly observe the holocaust thing early on in his term is because Putin and many other Russians probably get sick of hearing about 7 million Jews being exterminated when Russia lost at least 40 million people in WW2…
Christian Zionists are a key element of the pro-Israel Lobby in the United States, and a major mechanism by which Israel interferes with American elections and influences US foreign policy.
Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is a right wing religious organization that addresses members of the United States Congress, professing a Biblical justification for the defense of Israel. CUFI directs American voters to support the agenda of the Israeli government.
Netanyahu addressed a large CUFI rally of Christian Zionists in Washington in July 2017, declaring that “we” (his regime) has “no greater friends than Christian supporters of Israel”.
Netanyahu made no mention of Trump but took a dig at the White House’s decision at the time to leave the US embassy in Tel Aviv.
CIFI leader John Hagee has called for pre-emptive “nooklar” strike on Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDh1Vr7qajA
Hagee was the primary early funding source for the right wing extremist Zionist movement Im Tirtzu in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly endorsed Im Tirtzu
Thanks for your reply Skip. Our thoughts often run parallel for sure. Hope your holidays bring blessings.
And Sam Rothenburg…I don’t know what is has to do with this thread, but I do understand that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have common roots and that many Christians feel a kinship with Jewish people out of a sense of shared religiosity. Jesus was supposedly born near Bethlehem, a Palestinian town of the West Bank. And I, as a man of Christian background, happen to feel a much greater kinship with the persecuted Palestinians.
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll “Tannenhouser” – an obviously reading-challenged “WC” doppelgänger – has crept out of the hole to abuse us with more mischigas about “CONments”, “appropriate questions” and “tilting at windows”.
Hasbara troll “Tannenhouser” keeps ‘splainin’ that everybody’s “afraid” of the Israel
Hasbara hilarity ensues.
You are way off base man. You might as well be on the moon.
The Hasbara propaganda surge in the comments sections of investigative journalism and independent media sites is designed not to convince, but to sow doubt, distraction and general chaos.
As demonstrated by “WC” and to a lesser degree by “Tannenhouser” here, these propaganda efforts rapidly degenerate into crude volleys of insult and profanity. A favorite cute li’l phrase of “Tannenhouser” is “fucktard CONment”
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/10/13/the-legacy-of-reagans-civilian-psyops/
Now Conventional Hasbara propaganda troll “Tannenhouser” loudly declares “ALL of this site and many more nothing more than Quixotic”.
Presumably everyone but the troll is “way off base” and “might as well be on the moon”.
Aside from the noisy troll grunts and gurgles, “Tannenhouser” makes no fact-based statements.
Keep fighting the good fight Abe, from the moon that is. Here’s a Fact for you Abe… This board and it’s community talk very little as to the why Russia doesn’t call out the Zionists or the house of Saud for obvious and documented not to mention PROVABLE collusion with the US. Most here just do what you do and tilt at the elephant(Zionist) in the room. Why Russia doesn’t is way more important that your continual preaching to the quire and quite ineffective statements of the obvious. Please do carry on though, every now and again you do post something we didn’t already know, and that’s another fact.
Nope. Nada. Not one single fact-based statement from “Tannenhouser”.
Hasbara propaganda troll “Tannenhouser” and his pals vomit up some hilarious bullshit about “preaching to the quire [sic]” where there is fact-based discussion and critical analysis of Israel.
As Russia-gate ever obviously morphs into Israel-gate, the Hasbara troll army is busy criticizing the analysis as “ineffective statements of the obvious” and something we purportedly “already know’.
In fact, independent investigative journalism provides critical information, discussion and analysis that is not available from the pro-Israel think tank pundits and “First Draft” propaganda outlets.
So the noisy troll grunts and gurgles of “Tannenhouser” and his ilk are false on their face.
Russia’s posture is entirely sensible given the degree of US collusion with the Israel and its Saudi BFF. That does not mean the Russians are “afraid” of Israel. Moscow simply has a clear understanding of the situation.
The Hasbara trolls want to deflect fact-based discussion of Israel-gate into a fact-free “debate” about US collusion with anybody and everybody but Israel.
The grunts and gurgles of “AKA Hasbera [sic] troll” here demonstrate that propaganda technique with hilarious effect.
As “Tannenhouser” and “WC” have demonstrated, the Hasbara gurgling and grunting has been increasingly frantic.
Rest assured, as the embattled Netanyahu’s idiot push inevitably comes to shove, the Hasbara troll army will carry on a lot more here at CN.
You will get nowhere attacking those who hold the same views you profess to Abe. I’m now convinced that’s where you want to be,(nowhere) as well as hold the rest of us there (nowhere) tilting at windmills. You act more like Hasbera than I do with your garbage about facts while ignoring two very pertinent facts pointed out by myself. descending into childish name calling and personal attacks, is a Hasbera TM is it not? Abe? As you were Abe…..Pointing out the obvious is so useless……as are your attacks……more tilting at windmills…..hilarity ensues indeed.
Not content with mere grunts and gurgles, Hasbara troll “WC” is now puking furiously as “Tannenhouser”
“You will get nowhere” – “Protecting the Shaky Russia-gate Narrative” (December 15, 2017)
“get you nowhere” – “The Dark Inevitability of Zionism” (November 26, 2017)
“get you nowhere” – “US Bows to Israeli/Saudi Alliance in Blaming Iran” (November 29, 2017)
Everyone who asks questions or doubts what they read or attempts to debate is a troll. Or here, a Zionist troll. just so everyone knows where I’m coming from, I think Eisenhower should have offered the Jews half of Utah of nothing. instead of destabilizing the rest of the world from their their current chosen spot in the “sacred sand”, they could try to destabilize the Mormons. Win/Win IMHO. Personally, I like jews. Israel not so much, but I still subscribe to the Gore Vidal take on international relations which says push come to shove, the Israelis generally do what we tell them.
The claim made by Bill is completely false on its face.
Not everyone who asks questions or doubts what they read or attempts to debate is a troll.
However, such a claim is a pretty standard troll grumble, and a popular Hasbara troll gurgle.
In their propaganda efforts to “defend Israel”, Hasbara trolls carry on in two basic ways:
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda
Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda.
One of the tenets of Conventional Hasbara is that “the Israelis generally do what we tell them” so whatever they do is ultimately “our” fault. This brand of Hasbara propaganda ignores the reality of Israeli meddling and pro-Israel Lobby influence in American elections and foreign policy.
So “what we tell” Israel is typically what Israel and the pro-Israel Lobby have paid to hear.
Pro-Israel influence in US elections and foreign policy is enacted via top lobby groups such as AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and pro-Israel think tanks such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute, and the Brookings Institution.
Christian Zionist organizations such as Christians United for Israel provide additional support for Israel financially and politically.
Thanks for mentioning where you’re “coming from”, Bill.
But the issue here is not who or what one does or does not “like”.
Opinions are not facts.
By the way, trolls also mention where they’re “coming from”.
Conventional Hasbara trolls frequently attempt to conceal their zealous efforts to “defend Israel” behind an wall of denial.
And Inverted Hasbara trolls often conceal their efforts to “defend Israel” behind masquerades of “harsh criticism” and the false appearance of racist “Jew hatred”.
Such trolls deliberately ask “questions” and raising “doubts” to deflect attention, divert discussion, distract focus on Israeli meddling in American elections and pro-Israel Lobby influence on US foreign policy.
But thanks for sharing, Bill.
Shakes head. Your just sad man………….
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll and hilarious “WC” doppelgänger, “Tannenhouser” now entertains by channeling Donald Trump Tweets:
“just sad”
https://blog.codinghorror.com/content/images/2015/04/obvious-troll-is-obvious.jpg
Why should Russia point out Israeli and Saudi meddling? If other countries are meddling in American politics it’s up to the Americans to deal with it, not the Russians. If the Saudis and Israelis are interfering in the American political system and the Americans don’t call them on it then I guess they’re okay with it.
I’ve seen this brought up on many alt media sites but the MSM won’t touch it. Why not? That’s the question you should be asking.
Robert, Mostly because they are being attacked and sanctioned left right and center for in my mind obvious BS. I’m only looking for a deeper meaning to not defending oneself. What is the strategy? I’m not trying to deflect at all, I just don’t get why they don’t defend themselves, and this nitwit called Abe is trolling me with his garbage accusing me of distracting when it’s all he’s done. You got any sensible answers as to why Russia seemingly won’t defend itself?
Yes. Russia has defended itself. Putin has denied meddling in the US elections. By pointing the finger at Israel and SA would look like he (Putin) is deflecting and make it look like he has something to hide. It would be like “they did it [too]”
The DS is determined to bring down Trump and it really doesn’t matter what the Russians do or say to defend themselves. Russia is the designated enemy and can’t be trusted, so it doesn’t really matter what they say, does it?
Except there’s actual proof of malfeasance on the part of Israel and SA, unlike the bizarro world circus being run by the same guy who helped cover up 9/11 crimes and gave hrc a pass. They have all the dirt on the uranium deal as well.
It has to be more than an above the fray thing IMO, as the Russians are damned if they do and damned if they don’t anyways. No reason not to just say it, present proof and move on that I see. I get what you and others are saying, yet Occurs razor tells me that they play for the same team. Contrary to what my personal troll has to say the answer isn’t obvious and the possibility I have presented here certainly isn’t getting any airtime.
“Occurs [sic] razor tells me that they play for the same team”
The troll loudly complains that his “possibility” isn’t getting “airtime”.
Hasbara trolls are ever eager to “discuss” and “debate” any “possibility” that does not involve any of the actual facts of the Israeli-Saudi-US Axis of Collusion.
Note the perfectly sensible and obvious answer to the question of Israeli (and Saudi) meddling in American politics and US foreign policy:
It’s up to the Americans to deal with it, not the Russians.
That perfectly sensible and obvious understanding has been explained extensively, not by American mainstream media and “First Draft” propaganda peddlers, but by American investigative journalists, independent media like Consortium News, and other news outlets outside the United States.
Of course, the answer makes sense. It’s absurdly obvious to the Russians and most of the rest of the world.
But no matter how sensible and obvious the answer, “Tannenhouser” or “WC” or the Hasbara troll du jour will noisily gurgle to the fore carry on their propaganda antics.
“Tannenhouser” / “WC” rants ad absurdum that there’s some occult “deeper meaning” that Russia and the rest of the world are somehow “afraid” of.
As Israel-gate grinds forward, the Hasbara troll rants are getting louder and louder.
“As Israel-gate grinds forward, the Hasbara troll rants are getting louder and louder.” ya no one can discuss anything over your noise.
“Note the perfectly sensible and obvious answer to the question of Israeli (and Saudi) meddling in American politics and US foreign policy” Except that’s not the question I asked. If you actually read my posts instead of manual releasing into your sock over some assanine fantasy that I post as WC or some other such nonsense, you would recognize a friend not a foe. Dumbass. People like you turn way to many off your subject matter….. maybe that’s your point tho. Eh Abe?
Hasbara troll(s) “Tannenhouser” and doppelgänger “WC” swiftly degenerate into li’l potty mouths when their “possibility” fantasies don’t get unlimited “airtime” as they constantly demand.
No doubt their rants supply a huuuuge turn on for all their Hasbara troll army pals.
Why people continue to waste their precious time by reading “The New York Slimes” is simply incomprehensible. And the same applies to viewers of our corrupt, propaganda-spewing TV stations. High time to smell the coffee, friends !
What are these 17 intelligence agencies that we supposedly have? By my count, we have fewer than 10, and most of those are military in nature.
There are lists…
“There’s more than the CIA and FBI: The 17 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-17-intelligence-agencies-20170112-story.html
Gregory Herr
December 15, 2017 at 10:41 pm
Oh, and on net neutrality…I don’t hold out hope on it’s efficacy, but at least we can tell the FCC what we think.
Takes just a minute. my browser reports there is a problem with the certificate of the website and it will not connect..
1. Go to gofccyourself.com
2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom)
2. Click on “+Express”
3. Be sure to hit “ENTER” (or return) on your keyboard after you put in your name, so it registers. (They make it a tad tricky there.)
4. In the comment section write, “I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs.”
5. Click to Review, then Submit, done. – Make sure you hit submit at the end!
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/14/wikileaks-recognised-as-a-media-organisation-by-uk-tribunal?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
“Thank goodness, Trump just won the primary. Yay, our worries are over. He’ll be easy to beat.
What’s this? Trump is gaining speed. Trump’s numbers are increasing. WTF? If Trump wins and the American people ever find out about the looting and corruption that’s gone on, there will be hell to pay. Quick, start getting rid of files, start spying on him, manufacturing dirt on him. No, we don’t care what it is!
Oh my God, Trump won! Find anything to get rid of him.”
Enter Russiagate and the dream of Trump’s downfall. But a funny thing happened on the way to Adam Schiff’s ranch: the other side started looking under the rocks, and what they are now uncovering must be causing sleepless nights for the Deep State operatives. Talk about a nightmare!
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Whenever you push back hard against someone, you had better be sure your hands are clean.
So now the elite are hauling out “sexual harassment”. They’ve sacrificed Al Franken and Conyers, Weinstein, and now they’re going to go after Trump. Women who were labelled “sluts” when Bill Clinton was doing the groping and r*ping are now being listened to (and in some cases offered up to $750,000.00 for their stories).
Sexgate is on deck.
This will backfire on them as well. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
There is no crime until at time of conviction.
There are legalities by laws and then there are morals, and our system of government had no relationship to public morals.
There were not and still are not rules or regulations in our Constitution mandating that Government has to be fair or just, or has to tell truth to the people, and the people have no means to remove any persons or bureaus of that Government.
The vote has never in US history represented 100% of populace, but instead around 60% participate and the + 1 vote wins election, in and by electoral college, not popular votes.
A College in reality made up of only 2 conflicting parties members.
Government is not corrupt, the system,ours, has been corrupted only in the matter of Trust.
Trust is a moral judgement, and moral is human traits, and while so many whine about government abuses where and the hell does the human element come in?
Last I checked Americans have voted for some of the characters of such low moral standards that must by all indications show how low in moral fortitude they are at.
When words fall on deaf ears, we have ,as low caste people’s of history have always done, conform to the system.
The protest have never swayed government decisions, never, change comes about because humans within government see the greatest advantage for them through government change.
Cry and wither in desperation, or adapt.
We will adapt, morals can only go so far before they weaken, you’ve already weakened Liberty and Freedom and it has been in Hospice a long while.
Let them die.
The New York Times is just doing their duty, like the FBI, protecting our Democracy from the likes of Trump, who will destroy it. The idea is to let the American people relieve their angst by voting for people like Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump but making sure it is impossible for them to win. And notice we were all fine with this —- until the Russians leaked everything in Wikileaks and the plans went woefully wrong! Wake up people!
Now we have to deal with upset Bernie Sanders people and the loathsome Trump deplorables, but remember Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and there are 66 million of us who have no problem if the FBI got rid of Trump. And the wonderful people at the New York Times are helping do their part is all. So now we are a divided country just like Putin wants us to be and we need sources like the New York Times to bring us all back together. These are all expert journalists and people need to believe in them and not question them. This plays into Putin’s hands!
Remember, Democracy Dies in Darkness! And Trump is Darkness!
Either this post of yours, Stronger together, is a master class in sarcasm, or you’re smoking some seriously strong stuff !!!!
“Stronger Together” is a DNC troll selling infantile assurances of the integrity of the discredited FBI and NYT.
There is no one here dumb enough to listen. You will have to find or simulate another troll to agree with you.
Ive heard from many commentators that we currently ressemble the Soviet Union circa 1989.
Basically an empire in decline about to explode.
actually, the idea is to make you think Mueller and the FBI and “deep state” will save us from Trump. that way everyone sits at home,always on the verge of popping some popcorn in celebration…but not actually doing anything. Something we discovered in Wisconsin when the media, unions and democratic politicians worked in lockstep to co-opt our little revolt. i8nstead of a general strike or a teachers strike, we first tried to recall, then sat at home while the “adults” tried to investigate and indict. in retrospect it reminds me a lot of how we are dealing with Trumpkin., Trumpkin will only leave if a serious investigation into his finances occurs…which probably won’t because he’ll fire Mueller and by then, no one will have the energy to mount any sort of real civil disobedience. the owner class get everything they want and more (instead of 50-75% %of it w/Hillary ). At best, Trumpkin will take the blame, at worst,he’ll remain at the helm ( Pretty bad, but at least carrying out Putin’s orders directly is no longer possible). the funny thing is all the people posing here that imagine things would have been worse with Hillary. That simply wouldn’t be possible.anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
Thank you for this article. The US is sinking in a quagmire of capitalistic propaganda which supports a corrupt system aimed at continuing to destroy working people, the country and the planet. For evidence, one needs to look no further than the history of the Indigenous peoples and how their rights are being denied and their hopes buried along with their silenced heroes.
Very true. I seldom use the term Capitalist but US government is utterly corrupted by money power.
From the link:
Nor is there any proof that Bigfoot isn’t one of the Space Aliens living in their deep underground base in the Pacific Northwest.
I can’t actually remember why I stopped visiting the thinkprogress site, but stuff like this article may be part of the reason. Mostly the piece dismantles the trivial nonsense put out by the ignoramus in the White House while steering clear of the deadlier issues about Hillary and the FBI and the neocon media.
No collusion…that’s why Trumpkin and his friends continue to lie and arrange media distractions every time another piece of evidence pops up. No Contact>No Collusion> Its wasn’t me> it doesn’t matter. definitely the MO of the innocent. The funny thing here is that of course it’s unlikely the Russians successfully elected Trumpkin, but the Trump apologists pretend Trumpkin doesn’t owe billions to the oligarchs, and that his people from Devin Nunes, Carter page (such a sweet guy) and of course, the Sec of State are all up to their arses in business deals with the same oligarchs that like to buy real estate from Trumpkin for dollars on the penny. Sure, hoping the FBI and dickheads like Mueller take out Trumpkin creates a sort of uneasy cognitive dissonance, but don’t worry. when the time is right, The FBI will be happy to install pence…right after Trumpkin destroys whatever is left of our rule of constitution, environmental law and civil rights. See the thing is, the game is rigged no matter what….so go ahead and pretend Trumpkin was going to make a 1000 year peace with Russia or whatever your fantasies are…nothing you write here is going to change anything, and we’d still be marginally better off with Hillary as pres. So…if you can’t do some risky token civil obstruction (like maybe not paying your taxes?) or set yourself on fire on TV, maybe go join the women’s march or something …at least you’ll get some fresh air and exercise.
One commenter at the Kunster story states more thoughts in the direction I have been going for quite a while, that there is a political background to the intensity of the Weinstein story. One interesting view is that of Thierry Meyssan, who spectulates that the Weinstein flap is actually a takedown of one of the Zionists’ main strongholds, Hollywood. ????
Anyhow, here is the quote:
“Mr. Kunstler’s theory is that all of the sexual harassment allegations are leading up to Dump Trump. I think I agree, but I have absolutely no doubt that all of these allegations are being orchestrated by someone for some reason. There are just too many of them coming too fast for this not to be a coordinated effort. Plus, someone has to have deep pockets to convince all these women to speak out after years of silence. It would cost a fortune just to find these women and encourage them to come forward. The whole Democrat vs. Republican thing certainly adds fuel to the fire, but there’s something else driving this. Grass roots movements just don’t work like this. Finally, I think the time is ripe for this type of thing, because millions of women in America are in need of cash. I do not mean to denigrate those women who have truly suffered at the hands of sleazebags, but this is something else. You are right once again, Mr. Kunstler, but do you believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s all about Dump Trump?”
In The Iran “Threat” in a Kafkaesque World (2012), Edward S. Herman and David Peterson examined the “extreme application of the double standard” by the United States in the Middle East:
http://therealnews.com/t2/images/blogs/eherman1218.pdf
“U.S. ally and client Israel had from the start received active assistance developing its nuclear capability, and with the help of the United States, France, and Germany, it has built up a substantial arsenal since. This includes some 150-250 nuclear warheads (the exact number is unknown) plus delivery systems by land, sea, air, and ballistic missile. And throughout more than forty years of such unparalleled help, Israel refused to sign the NPT and subject itself to IAEA inspections and was never pressed to do so. A secret agreement was even struck between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969 under which the United States agreed to accept – and remain silent about – Israel’s nuclear weapons program. This agreement, often referred to as the “U.S.-Israeli nuclear understanding,” was reaffirmed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2009. Netanyahu boasted about it in September that same year after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) summit, telling Israel’s Channel 2 television station that at his meeting with Obama in May, he ‘asked to receive from him an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue.’ Obama had obliged. In effect, ‘The president gave Israel an NPT treaty get out of jail free card,’ one Senate staffer told the Washington Times.
“So thoroughly built-in is this double standard that when the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna in September 2009 voted forty-nine to forty-five to adopt a binding resolution that ‘calls upon Israel to accede to the NPT and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards’ – in other words, that Israel’s nuclear weapons program was to be treated the same as Iran’s civilian nuclear program – the English-language media observed near total silence about the event. The only major newspaper that reported it was the next-day’s Irish Times, and nothing showed up in any major U.S. print media.
“Similarly unmentioned is the fact that the United States is itself in violation of the NPT (as is every member of the Founding Five states – the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and China – that tested a nuclear weapon prior to 1 January 1967). Article VI of the NPT requires that all parties to the treaty ‘pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.’ But the Founding Five have not done this. The United States has openly striven to upgrade its nuclear weapons to make their use more practicable in conventional warfare settings, and both the United States and NATO have publicly declared the importance that the Alliance attaches to a ‘credible’ nuclear posture ‘to preserve peace and prevent coercion and any kind of war.’ Nevertheless, in a Kafkaesque moment, UNSC Resolution 1887, adopted with much fanfare during the opening week of the UNGA’s 2009 session in September, called upon the ‘Parties to the NPT’ to live up to the treaty’s ‘nuclear arms reduction and disarmament’ demands. Indicative of the depth of the institutionalized reality-denial was the fact that the rampant violations and double standards in no way tempered the indignation of the United States and its allies concerning Iran’s alleged NPT violations.”
The late professor Herman (died 11 November 2017) was a distinguished scholar, political economist, and media analyst/critic, best known for developing the propaganda model of media criticism (co-authored with Noam Chomsky) in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988).
The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Herman and Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in mass media. The model explains how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies is “manufactured” in the public mind due to this propaganda.
According to the propaganda model, the way in which news is structured (e.g. through advertising, concentration of media ownership, government sourcing) creates an inherent conflict of interest that acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.
The propaganda model postulates five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in news media: Ownership of the medium, Medium’s Funding Sources, Sourcing, Flak, and Fear Ideology.
Use of the Flak filter is notable in the Washington Post / PropOrNot imbroglio and Russia-gate narrative. The term “flak” describes efforts to discredit organizations or individuals who disagree with or cast doubt on prevailing assumptions that are favorable to established power. Flak is characterized by concerted efforts to manage public information in support of the political and economic Establishment, culminating in outright censorship.
The Hasbara propaganda army finds bugbears everywhere and anywhere but Israel.
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll “WC” cribs much from the scribble from jeremiad blogger and Hasbara peddler William Howard Kunstler.
Kunstler natters away about the deep state military and intelligence matrix, peak oil, and financial hurricanes.
But Kunstler is utterly hilarious when praising “miraculous” Israel
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/voila-world-war-three/
Kunstler predictably can’t imagine the Netanyahu regime’s contribution to the Israeli-Saudi-US Axis clusterfuck in Syria.
With signature Hasbara incredulity, Kunstler protests: “I’m sorry, it’s rather impossible to imagine Israel getting all chummy with the psychopaths of ISIS”.
Kunstler further exclaims: “One thing is a fact: all other things being equal, Israel has the capability of turning any other state or kingdom in the region into an ashtray, if push came to shove. Voila: World War Three.”
“WC” cribbed Kunstler’s “push […] to shove” cackle in a recent Hasbara pukefest for “Trump’s Illegal Syrian Mission Creep” (December 13, 2017)
Ever more hilarious Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll “WC” declares:
“There are no Zionist trolls on the Consortium News comments section.”
Monty Python Blue ladies applaud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abrWTwxoo4Q
“During a brief press scrum before his speech to FBI agents on Friday morning, President Trump made his latest attempt to convince the American public that his campaign did not collude with Russia. As is his custom, the president enlisted a string of lies in the effort.”
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-makes-at-least-7-false-claims-in-one-90-second-statement-about-russia-9091a6fb4ef6/
“Think Progress”–as soon as you see the name, its not worth reading, Soros financed propaganda site….”Think Progress is a “project” of the American Progress Action Fund (APAF), a “sister advocacy organization” of the John Podesta-led Center for American Progress (CAP) and CAP’s entities such as Campus Progress. It also draws freely on the resources of the George Soros-funded Media Matters website edited by David Brock.
Think Progress is an Internet blog that “pushes back, daily,” by its own account, against its conservative targets, and supports the APAF agenda: to transform “progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world.” Think Progress promotes an agenda identical to that of the left wing of the Democratic Party….”
The issue the think-progress article raises is Trump’s lies with respect to his Russia collusion. What the above article, and practically all neo progressive pundits fail to account for in their habitually demagogic and Trump-aligned denial, is why he ALWAYS lie about it.
Also, your bizarre views about one of the most important consistently progressive news sites is beside the point, as nothing in my previous comment argued about it.
When I see blatant lies in the first two “correcting” sentences, I am not inclined to read more.
The article provides zero evidence of “collusion with Russia” so plainly you are a troll for the DNC.
Trump and his friends must be pretty stupid: Here they have done nothing wrong at all, yet its been “no contact wit hthe Russians” to “no Collusion with the Russians” to “it wasn’t me”/”It doesn’t matter.” my guess is Trump is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian oligarchy. In that sense, the election collusion thing really is as insignificant as the whitewater real estate deal. if they can get Trumpkin under oath he’ll lie (because he so rarely doesn’t lie), and they’ll impeach him.
You have no evidence for Russia-gate, so you are spouting propaganda that fools no one here.
The protection of Trump may be happening in another way. As I see it, there aren’t very many people the man could defeat in an honest election. Hillary Clinton is of course one of them, but I suspect Joe Biden is another. I’ve been looking over Biden’s “qualifications” for the White House, and except for being a famous name, they’re mighty slim. And it does look as if he is running. Perhaps the DNC and the people behind it don’t mind Trump so much after all.
What Joe Biden’s Anita Hill apology tells us about his 2020 plans
h**p://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politics/joe-biden-analysis/index.html
Like with Hillary, Biden is a known quantity – an old f a r t who has done little other than evil things. I despise Trump, but couldn’t bring myself to vote for Biden. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both are very bad hombres.
“We own the finish line” Biden! God help us all.
What Russia-gaters do not understand is that they are protecting Trump. By chasing the hallucination of the red menace, they are rendered ineffective in challenging the very real threat that Trump is. Perhaps it was planned that way Piensalo.
Russia gate is irrelevant as far as Trump’s first four years as the president is concerned.It doesn’t matter what they find, invent or fantasize about, Trump is there for the first four years of his presidency, so why do they continues with this farce? There is a similar theme going on over here in the UK about ‘Brexit’ where the vote was clear cut. All these Trump bashers tell us constantly how marvelous democracy is, but when it doesn’t go the way they want they cry foul. Russia gate makes Alice-in-wonderland seem quite normal.
It is long past time to accept the reality that we live under authoritarian rule in a Neo-feudal economic system.
People talk about inequity and how something must be done. Yet, the 0.01% have monopoly control of the entire economy from food to minerals to products the entire Western economy is under the control of around 250,000 people.
These are truly scary times. Quantum computing is coming online which will increase the power of AI by orders of magnitude facial recognition of everyone on earth will be normal in just a few years and that is nothing really. The AI and robots mobile AI units belong to the .01% not to us. These machines will have one over riding purpose – to serve the interests of their owners.
The 0.01% won the markets now people can squawk all they like about re-distribution – they have a trillion dollar a year military – so just try and take it – Feudalism in every respect.
Humans Fight Back: San Fran Security Robot Attacked, Knocked Over, Smeared With Feces
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-14/humans-fight-back-san-fran-security-robot-attacked-knocked-over-smeared-feces
What do they want to get out of this? Is it war with Russia? Or is it a step backward and straight down the hellhole that will put HRC in the White House, or maybe Mike Pence? I watched with fascination today Amy Goodman, for whom I no longer have much respect, fielding female victims of Donald Trump’s groping. I must say I had a hard time imagining the story Ms. Jessica Leeds was trying to sell — but fortunately, or unfortunately, this is the kind of tale for which there are always numerous takers and numerous outs (didn’t say anything because back then… Who would have believed it?)
I’m not excusing DT on this count; probably was guilty, but his point is well-made thinking that now that Russiagate has failed (or has it?) that they have to get him on something else. This made me wonder if the outing of Harvey Weinstein was a planned prelude to these later accusations being rolled out from every corner.
E.g. Moore’s loss in Alabama helped by numerous unverified, vague allegations about sexual predations, again 40 years ago…And then we learn that a British preacher is asking Christians to pray that 4-year old Prince George will grow up to be a homosexual, thereby forcing the Church of England to support same-sex marriage? !! https://needtoknow.news/2017/12/priest-urges-christians-pray-4-year-old-prince-george-gay/
In the midst of all this bizarreness, does anyone remember seeing Bill Clinton’s female victims of rape and other sordid molestations televised across the land from the DNC convention while HRC was poised to take her crown? These women were fielded very differently from Ms. Jessica Leeds. They seemed, in fact, utterly pathetic — so that we viewers couldn’t miss the point that they must be either liars or something worse: Sluts, maybe.
This is how we are being twisted about in America today: It seems that Satan is fielding both the debate issues and choosing the opponents. And nothing out of the completely co-opted, utterly corrupted MSM is trustworthy. So thanks, Robert Parry: And Merry Christmas. At least we can count upon you.
In spite of all the blatant lies that it publishes, the New York Times is still highly regarded by the political and media establishment, even in Europe.
In Hamburg on 3 December 2017, the NYT was awarded the Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Understanding and Reconciliation. In his presentation speech, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the NYT as an authority of enlightenment and a beacon of reason.
Steinmeier even managed to sneak in some fake news when he said “We are paying tribute to a flagship of freedom of the press in an age in which … independent newspapers are branded as foreign agents in Russia”.
http://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/EN/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/Reden/2017/12/171203-Doenhoff-Prize.html
In fact, none of the media outlets that were recently declared foreign agents by Moscow is either independent or a newspaper. That list consists only of the US government financed VOA and RFE/RL and a number of websites and broadcasters that VOA and RFE/RL control.
Apart from that, the Russian “foreign agents” list is just a direct retaliation against Washington for doing exactly the same thing to RT and Sputnik, who were forced to register as foreign agents. Apparently the “freedom of the press” isn’t so important when it applies to Russian media organisations working in the USA.
Brendan, I am not surprised at German President Walter Steinmeier’s inserting some “Fake News” in there in his remarks. Western Europe is not too far behind U.S. in this Russia-Gate type utter nonsense being fed to their Citizens.
It is still pretty hard for the mind to comprehend this State of total Moral Collapse of The West. It happened so fast, in a few decades. The West had totally dominated the World for four or five centuries in just about everything – Colonies, Political domination; Science, Engineering prowess, Literature, Art . . . . Most of the people in the World, including me grew up reading, and influenced by Western Ideas and civilization.
This total Moral Collapse of The West defies an easy explanation. There is no leader in The West on the horizon at this time who can offer some hope for the future.
I think part of the problem that has led to the moral collapse of the west is that we have not valued education highly enough. School teachers often make just about as much money as the school bus driver, and schools often lower their standards just to pass the kids through the system. I think mindless consumerism has also played a large part. Education is now focused on acquiring job skills, so the general reading of literature, philosophy, history, etc. has all fallen by the wayside. Also the evisceration of the middle class over recent decades has resulted in both parents working full time leaving no one to raise the kids.
Yes, Skip , you are right on that. Just a few decades ago, at least people used to get some good information from the media; but that is all history now. In this age of iPhones, tablets, very few people have interest in reading literature, philosophy, history . . . So, we have largely an uneducated population now. It is getting like that all over the World. This is also West’s contribution to the World – the West’s influence is still very predominant all over the World.
Also, a convenient excuse to discredit the “Special Counsel” Mueller investigation. “Witch hunt”, “Fake News”, which will come in handy if any real crimes are exposed. Reminds me of one criminal mob taking over territory from the current bunch of criminals.
Sad to see. The definition of “government” is that it represents “the people”. Yet, I wonder if any government on Earth does represent “the people”.
This whole Russiagate fraud could serve to awake a lot of Americans, if they would only look into it. You are not going to find a more blatant example of fake news by every major media, and also those supposedly upstanding Senators and Representatives, FBI and Justice Icons. If the public ignores opportunities to wake up to this outrageous scam being perpetrated on them now, there is little hope that they ever will. I try to get my friends interested in researching Russiagate, and a few of them have become curious and started asking questions – that’s how awakening begins…….
Agreed. It’s important to have just one or a few topics at most that you can suggest to your uninformed friends as being worthy of their own time to research , with the ultimate goal of ” waking up “. Russia-gate is perfect. The Syrian War is another good one.
Funny how the NYT will try and make hay with a collection of various Russian disjointed ads on Facebook with an investment of $44,000.xx out weights the 4.9 billion dollars worth of free media coverage the MSM gave Trump through the whole 2016 presidential campaign, and nobody thinks nothing of it. If there was any type of collusion to help Trump win the White House then why not question this free media give away?
As a side note, should we investigate Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn for colluding with Israel?
Senator Mark Warner plays the part of the inquisitor well, and for that reason he has loss my respect, if he ever had it to begin with. Enough of covering up for Hillary’s guilt complex to why she loss the election. Someone should just tell her, that even though she has done everything there is in her power to take Putin out of power, that her presidential loss is all on her. Putin didn’t need to interfere, since by Hillary just being Hillary was enough to keep her out of reach of the Oval Office.
I hope that in the coming year, that by some stroke of luck, that William Binney will get the praise he deserves. We need more people like Binney working in our government, and without him we all are left vulnerable to the many who don’t represent our citizen values. I thought the MSM’s treatment of William Binney was disgraceful, to say the least.
Lastly, I would only hope that whoever it was that started this Russia-Gate nonsense would be revealed, but hope doesn’t prosecute anyone, but knowledge at least allows you too see who and what is behind the curtain.
“…a collection of various Russian disjointed ads on Facebook with an investment of $44,000.xx…..”
Yes , it was amazing that Russia was able to control our election so cheaply , but really , that was nothing. They swung the UK Brexit vote with Facebook ads costing them only 97 cents ! :
http://russia-insider.com/en/brilliant-russians-engineered-brexit-97-cents-facebook-ads/ri21937
You could only sell this kind of absurdity to a well uninformed listener who was mostly watching the news for the weather, or the end game ball score results.
Patrick Armstrong makes a good argument. Among his many great points he makes he questions to why would the Russians not have revealed Hillary’s politicial grand larceny, and did Russia not jump on her screwing over of Sanders before the end of the Democratic Convention? And another thing, since the Russians knew all about Uranium One in regard to the Clinton’s, then why not expose Hillary for that?
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/12/15/deconstructing-almighty-russian-hackers-myth.html
Very good article in the link, Joe. I was thinking of handing it out myself, you saved me the trouble.
But, by the way, there should be many other topics to cover for Mr Parry, except the Russia-nonsense. This is becoming rather repetitious, honestly. However, all this needs to come out, as long as there are people still believing the MSM version and their alternative facts.
I get what your saying Lisa, about Robert Parry’s passion to get the truth out about Russia-Gate, but then if Parry doesn’t cover it, then who can we rely on to tell us the truth? Joe
What I meant, Joe, is that at least I have read Parry’s account of the Facebook ads and the hand-picked specialists in the 17 intelligence agencies so many times that I’ve lost the count.
There is, of course, hope that there are new readers of CN who were not aware of these “alternative facts”, in comparison to CNN’s etc “hand-picked facts”.
(alternative = additional)
It appears I was wrong…There is another here asking the appropriate questions. And thus it begins, Kudos Joe.
In the end, this whole RussiaGate scandal may actually have a positive impact if it can be proven that it was a conspiracy cooked up by the “Deep State” as insurance in case of a Trump victory. If this is proven and actually becomes common knowledge, people like Brennan and Clapper, and their MSM mouthpieces, will never be trusted again. Though heads didn’t roll after the exposure of the “weapons of mass destruction” lie, this one might tip the balance. Their argument that the “intelligence was mistaken” won’t fly, as RussiaGate is so obviously a purposely constructed lie. It would be even greater if this led to a counter-investigation where all the perps were exposed and publicly prosecuted, and the Intelligence Agencies were “broken into 1000 pieces.” Maybe while they were at it, they could get around to auditing the Pentagon. I like to dream big.
My hope is that websites like this one can continue to build an audience and speak truth to power now that net neutrality appears dead.
Skip Scott
“people like Brennan and Clapper, and their MSM mouthpieces, will never be trusted again”
After iraq and WMD. After Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin. Iran and the Contras. Watergate After all of the lies these agencies have told and brazenly admitted that they lie to the American public what makes you think that this matter of Russia Gate will make any difference. Barnum had it right. There is a sucker born every minute. In the US case it is millions of suckers born every minute.There was a tribe of aboriginals in California who never had lies in their culture. . When Europeans reached what is now California they would laugh at those people because they were so gullible. Well with each new line, hook and sinker that Americans swallow those Indians would have to think that the overall American population incorporated that part of their culture as it,s own. I would have to wonder if there is a population in any other country on earth that beleives lies told them by repeated and aknowledged liars. Like Clapper and company.
Sorry, I’m still a kid at heart. I was giving out my Christmas wish list.
Brennan himself, should be the subject of an investigation, lest we forget the mysterious death of Michel Hastings in a “freak car crash” in L.A(2013). after investigating Brennan for a Rolling Stones story.
http://allnewspipeline.com/Bombshell_Revelation_CIA_Director_Targeted.php
Keep dreaming big Skip. The perpetrators and enablers of Russia-gate, the Ukrainian coup, and the dirty wars on the people of Syria and Yemen ought to have their hats and arses handed to them. What a true audit of the Pentagon would reveal would boggle the American mind to no end—messing with “foreigners” comes in a distant second to messing with “our money” when it comes to upsetting American apple carts. Man I wish I could live long enough to see a little comeuppance for the bastards.
Oh, and on net neutrality…I don’t hold out hope on it’s efficacy, but at least we can tell the FCC what we think.
Takes just a minute.
1. Go to gofccyourself.com
2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom)
2. Click on “+Express”
3. Be sure to hit “ENTER” (or return) on your keyboard after you put in your name, so it registers. (They make it a tad tricky there.)
4. In the comment section write, “I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs.”
5. Click to Review, then Submit, done. – Make sure you hit submit at the end!
Thanks Gregory, done.
Skip I’m with you on the hope that at this moment in time a huge correction should take place within our governments law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but I am cautious to what may really be going on here.
I find it interesting that these new revelations coming out about Mueller’s crack team of investigators, are coming out after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Why, would this matter? Well the Zionist Cabal has many tentacles within it’s space, and infiltrating their reach into the many halls of power is their specialty, why I’m sure their influence would loom heavy to twist arms into Trump’s favor. Also the only collusion that went on with Flynn was via Kushner, and Netanyahu, regarding Israel’s desires.
I also wonder to if the Neocon’a are finally warming up to Trump. I mean Michael Morell in a Politico interview said to how he now questions the whole Russia-Gate fiasco as not being ‘well thought out’. Could Trump’s generosity to the Pentagon be paying off?
I’m also wondering to if Robert Mueller sits tonight contemplating to if all this is was worth it for presidentially obsessed ‘Hillary’?
Like I said Skip, I’m with you on the idea that this collapsing of the Russia-Gate narrative should bring down a lot of deceitful people, but Skip my friend remember we are talking swamp creatures and Washington DC. Joe
Hi Joe-
Yes, of course you may well be right. In a sense RussiaGate has succeeded by making detente nearly impossible, as Trump has given inordinate power to his generals. So much for the Commander in Chief being in charge of the military. Bannon and Flynn are gone, and Trump has been brought to heel. Israel is being well tended to, although they have been forced to compromise on Syria. The $$$ is flowing to the MIC, so they’re mostly happy. Domestically it looks like the 1% get their wish list, but the rest of us get screwed again. Hillary couldn’t have done it better.
I would like to see at least an unveiling to the general public that they have once again been duped by the Intelligence Agencies, which might make it a little harder for the next propaganda ploy to gain traction. And I would jump for joy if it actually resulted in the prosecution of some of the perpetrators, and maybe even a shakeup at the NYT, the WaPo, CNN, and MSDNC. Rachel Madcow and the other minions publicly shamed with egg on their faces and replaced by real journalists would be a start towards a better future.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas Joe.
Skip I think you feel like a lot of us, we are just tired of being lied to. Joe
Good point, Joe.
Listen, i thought the same thing that it was odd that that all this truth started pouring out the moment Trump endorsed Israel. But why do you think the whole world hates Israel and Jews if not racisim? Does Israel not deserve to exist? Yeah. They do bad shit to Palestinians. But Saudi arabia is doing worse on yemen and people on the left arent outraged? I know for fact that a palestinian would murder me for simply being Jewish and hate me, but i have no haye for them.
Sam first off I feel for the average Jew. It goes without saying how people will blame the average citizen for their leaders crimes, but this doesn’t make it fair.
I too find Saudi Arabia to be a feudal sixth century nightmare of a government, and what the Saudi’s are doing in Yemen with U.S. assistance is truly a war crime of great proportions.
I brought up Israel, because beyond a doubt Israel holds America’s government in their hip pocket. We Americans along with good intentioned Jewish people need to bring these politicians of ours to heel.
Just like I as an American should not be held responsible for Bush, Obama, or Trump, Jewish people should not be punished for what Netanyahu does. Joe
Palestinians are just as varied as any other group. Most people prefer peace.
https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/490/an-unlikely-friendship
How they treat exposed conspiracies, we could see on Snowden. It just gets swept under the rug, the media acts as if its not a huge deal, or even the others are to blame.
No, this will go according to their plan, because they have the power in information. They can form people to what they want them to be, which is ignorant, gullible consumers, who think they are morally superior.
Hilary gave it away, as the (anti-democratic)”Democratic Party” gave it all away and has been doing it for decades.
Whereas the right has wisely (for it’s purposes) built long term infrastructure of funded think tanks, media, fundamentalist ideologists, etc; the Democratic Establishment has dumped on it’s base at practically ever turn, never really showing actual support for it’s public community, and has joined with the right to destroy all attempt to build an actual peoples’ political party.
I just turned 84 and have witnessed the ever-growing weakness and right-leaning of the Party” since I was a little kid and have seen it only become more disgustingly lame and disingenuous in all these years since, with extended travel, 20-year military service and work around the world, in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
And we are largely to blame, being humans and Americans, we sit back-busy with our lives, and neglect our responsibilities to our fellow man and community.
Get up off your ass, guys…
I must add, the so-called Party has quite consistently ACTIVELY fought against labor, consumers, t’s own loyal public.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/wall-street-2016-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-213931
“…the Democratic Party in the Clinton and Obama administrations has consistently embraced and implemented policies that strip workers of economic and legal rights to benefit investors and the elite professionals that serve them. Over time, the “neoliberal” economic order—which sees only good, never bad, in the relentless untrammeling of capital and the deregulation of markets—has created an unacceptable level of economic insecurity and distress for those outside the 1 percent and the elite professionals who serve them.”
And then Bill Clinton had the temerity to say that progressives “have no where else to go”. Good grief.
i notice they don’t offer to buy people one way tickets out of here anymore.
Among the many great comments posted here I find in your resume Mr Opperman a ton of experienced words worth listening too. In fact, it is people such as yourself that I feel our younger generation should be learning from. Your traveling, and working for the government has given you an insight that many of us do not have, nor will get since we are all not like you John. So keep posting, and tell us what you think America should do next, as we go forward. Thank you for your remarks, they are respected for what you have earned. Joe
Thanks for this post John.
Yes, as with everything, there is the reality of the situation and the public narrative that is shoveled at the people non-stop via the “mainstream” media. Unfortunately, that faction of the media serving as tools of the Democratic Party has just about all of the Democratic Rank and File voters–like my otherwise highly successful, intelligent and perceptive brother–arguing to me that Rachel Maddow is a fount of truth and wisdom and that the Russians most certainly did spend a shitload of money on countless insidious and effective ads that made all the difference in the election and brought us Trump. It’s all spelled out for them by the DNC and MSNBC, no reason to think for themselves. Besides, their age-old political gurus would never lie to them, would they? Only Republicans and conservatives–along with Ruskies and Commies–lie. Don’t even ask about my dedicated liberal sister from Cali, who is a devoted follower of Hillary and long-suffering feminist martyr. For many people the long-standing deceitful facade can never be demolished–or even eroded–and replaced with something closer to the truth. I guess to see the truth one must have a high tolerance for the hideous, with which most people are not prepared or willing to cope.
Can i use that last part and quote it on facebook? “. I guess to see the truth one must have a high tolerance for the hideous, with which most people are not prepared or willing to cope.”
Sure. All those words are in the public domain. I’m sure someone else in the multiverse has strung them together in the same order at some point in time.
You’re a brave man to skulk around Facebook.
You got that right. The classic old-school liberal who is comfortable in their delusions literally can’t handle the truth!
“major media outlets have made humiliating, breathtaking errors on the Trump-Russia story, always in the same direction, toward the same political goals. Here is just a sample of incredibly inflammatory claims that traveled all over the internet before having to be corrected, walked back, or retracted — often long after the initial false claims spread, and where the corrections receive only a tiny fraction of the attention with which the initial false stories are lavished:
– Russia hacked into the U.S. electric grid to deprive Americans of heat during winter (Wash Post)
– An anonymous group (PropOrNot) documented how major U.S. political sites are Kremlin agents (Wash Post)
– WikiLeaks has a long, documented relationship with Putin (Guardian)
– A secret server between Trump and a Russian bank has been discovered (Slate)
– RT hacked C-SPAN and caused disruption in its broadcast (Fortune)
– Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app (Crowdstrike)
– Russians attempted to hack elections systems in 21 states (multiple news outlets, echoing Homeland Security)
– Links have been found between Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci and a Russian investment fund under investigation (CNN) […]
“But what it means most of all is that when media outlets are responsible for such grave and consequential errors as the spectacle we witnessed yesterday, they have to take responsibility for it by offering transparency and accountability. In this case, that can’t mean hiding behind P.R. and lawyer silence and waiting for this to just all blow away.
“At minimum, these networks — CNN, MSNBC, and CBS — have to either identify who purposely fed them this blatantly false information or explain how it’s possible that ‘multiple sources’ all got the same information wrong in innocence and good faith. Until they do that, their cries and protests the next time they’re attacked as ‘Fake News’ should fall on deaf ears, since the real author of those attacks — the reason those attacks resonate — is themselves and their own conduct.”
The U.S. Media Suffered Its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages and Now Refuses All Transparency Over What Happened
By Glenn Greenwald
https://theintercept.com/2017/12/09/the-u-s-media-yesterday-suffered-its-most-humiliating-debacle-in-ages-now-refuses-all-transparency-over-what-happened/
Interesting that the governments of Sweden and Finland believe that Russia is a threat because of events in Ukraine and Crimea…that apparently, according to the above posters…didn’t happen.
“Moscow’s official line on Ukraine—and it should not be dismissed just because that’s what it is—is that the U.S. has spent about $ 5 billion backing “regime change” in that sad, bankrupt country, ultimately resulting in a coup d’etat (or putsch) in Kiev in February 2014 in which neo-fascists played a key role. The coup occurred because the U.S. State Department and Pentagon hoped to replace the democratically elected administration with one that would push for Ukraine’s entry into NATO, a military alliance designed from its inception in 1949 to challenge Russia. The ultimate intent was to evict the Russian Black Sea Fleet from the bases it’s maintained on the Crimean Peninsula for over 230 years.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/14/ukraine-the-truth/
As for the NY Times reporting on events in Ukraine:
The NY Times Op Ed published “The Dumbed Down Democracy” in which the author stated “If more than 16 percent of Americans could locate Ukraine on a map, it would have been a Really Big Deal when Trump said that Russia was not going to invade it — two years after they had, in fact, invaded it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/opinion/the-dumbed-down-democracy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
This website (Robert Parry) replied:
“The Dumbed Down New York Times”
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/08/27/the-dumbed-down-new-york-times/
Robert Parry wrote: “The Times’ reporting on Ukraine has been particularly dishonest and hypocritical. The Times ignores the substantial evidence that the U.S. government encouraged and supported a violent coup that overthrew elected President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, including a pre-coup intercepted phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt discussing who should lead the new government and how to “midwife this thing.”
This was initially a cover story for some US media that reported on the leaked Victoria Nuland intercepted phone call to Geoffrey Pyatt on how the State Department could help “Midwife” a coup.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957
Pyatt: No, exactly. And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it. And again the fact that this is out there right now, I’m still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych (garbled) that. In the meantime there’s a Party of Regions faction meeting going on right now and I’m sure there’s a lively argument going on in that group at this point. But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. The other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.
Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden’s willing.
Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks.
What happened next was indeed a coup which ousted the elected leader of Ukraine.
From Counterpunch:
Chronology of the Ukrainian Coup
“Listening to the US media, even the most diligent news junkie would find it difficult to know that the U.S. State Department played not only a vital role in the violence and chaos underway in Ukraine but was also complicit in creating the coup that ousted democratically elected President Viktor Yanuyovch. Given the Russian Parliament’s approval of Putin’s request for military troops to be moved into Crimea, Americans uninformed about the history of that region might also be persuaded that Russia is the aggressor and the sole perpetrator of the violence.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/05/chronology-of-the-ukrainian-coup/
Russia was not the sole aggressor. The USA clearly had a role in trying to destabilize the government of Ukraine and was encouraging outside dissident factions to rise up against the government which they did.
December 13, 2013 – As if intent on providing incontrovertible evidence of US involvement in Ukraine, Assistant US Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Victoria Nuland proudly told a meeting of the International Business Conference sponsored by the US-Ukrainian Foundation that the US had ‘invested’ more than $5 billion and ‘five years worth of work and preparation” in achieving what she called Ukraine’s ‘European aspirations.” Having just returned from her third trip to Ukraine in five weeks, Nuland boasted of her ‘coordinated high level diplomacy’ and a more than two hour ‘tough conversation’ with Yanukovych. Already familiar with Nuland as former Secretary Clinton’s spokesperson at State, one can imagine her discourteous tone and manner when she says she made it “absolutely clear” to Yanukovych that the US required “immediate steps” …to “get back into conversation with Europe and the IMF.” While Western media have portrayed Yanukovych as a ‘weak’ leader, Nuland’s description of a ‘tough’ meeting can only mean that he resisted her threats and intimidations. In what must have been a touching moment, Nuland spoke about a show of force by government police on demonstrators who “sang hymns and prayed for peace.”
What Nuland did not reveal on December 13 was that her meetings with ‘key Ukrainian stakeholders’ included neo-Nazi Svoboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok and prime minister wannabe Arsenly Yatsenyuk of the Fatherland Party. At about the same time Nuland was wooing fascist extremists, Sen. John McCain (R-Az) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D- Conn) shared the stage in Kiev with Tyahnybok offering their support and opposition to the sitting government. The Svoboda party which has roots with extreme vigilante and anti-semitic groups has since received at least three high level cabinet posts in the interim government including deputy prime minister. There is no doubt that the progenies of west Ukraine’s historic neo-fascist thugs that fought with Hitler are now aligned with the US as represented by Victoria Nuland.
Of course none of this is explored by the New York Times. Their version of events is that Russia unprovoked invaded Ukraine starting the violence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/europe/ukraine-russia-novoazovsk-crimea.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-military-border-nato.html
The truth here is that the US was obsessed with prying Ukraine away from Russia and was willing to engage with any party however despicable to overthrow a Russia friendly Ukrainian government. They were willing to court and woo neo Nazis and other extremist elements which were counter to the values of a free society in order to accomplish their goals.
The same thing has happened in Syria. The democrats including Obama willingly went along with these plans which led to disasters in both nations.
Thank you Robert Parry for standing up for the truth in an age of fake news which tries to fool us all led by the “most respectable” news agencies in the land.
If Sweden and Findland consider themselves to be former parts of the USSR, maybe they should. In reality, the Swedes have been Russia-hysterical since 1700–1721 (loss of the Baltic countries and Finland to the new ambitious European player, Russian Empire). However, most Russians and their politicians are completely ignorant of Sweden (IMHO Astrid Lindgren is the most known Swede in Russia) except their potential NATO membership (which Russians see as a threat, NATO doesn’t), so I presume, the Russia hysteria in Sweden must stem from certain lobbyists, not from an existential threat. It would be logical to suppose that Finland was afraid of a new 1939–1940 war with the Soviets (now Russia) but as their MoD explained their main concern stems from a potential NATO-Russia conflict where the war could come to the Finnish territory with a subsequent loss of control over it. Moreover, the Finnish-Russian relations were quite good for more than 50 years before the current government in Finland. So lobbyists again, maybe? I fail to see any interest of Russia in Finland or any Russia-Finland disputes except Karelia. Maybe your can state your arguments?
Lately I’ve heard on PBS and other news shows that Russia “invaded Ukraine” and also attacked Crimea and essentially stole the island back to Russia. I forget the exact words used about Crimea but that was the gist. I have heard several times people on PBS using the the words Russia “invaded Ukraine” to describe what happened there. Like the N.Y.T. PBS is supposed to be the go to place for unbiased news and now they are blatantly lying to the public – and have been lying certainly as far back as 2014, if not before.
It’s very discouraging to know that there are so few places where one can go to get actual facts. Consortium is one and, surprisingly RT is often another – at least RT tells us about stuff going on in other parts of the world that we never hear about in the MSM. Boy! talk about being an insular country! America is the most isolated country in the world when it comes to knowledge about other lands. We go on about how narcissistic Trump is, but the fact is that our whole government and our MSM is totally narcissistic and has been for quite a while – all we think about is us- and our government is willing to kill and lay waste anyone or any country that doesn’t do exactly what we want, even when what we want is disasterous for not only other countries, but also disasterous for our own country. We are so narcissistic that we can’t see it.
The course of events largely determines the course of journalism. We all tire of the Russia-gate diversion from Israel-gate, but so long as the mass media deceive, that is news and the public must be undeceived. I too wish for a change but without the counter story the propaganda is unopposed. Mr. Parry’s stories on this have been regularly carried on alt new sites. It is not our party, but that of the oligarchy media.
Let us hope that the MSM drop the subject as an embarrassment, likely when their next war begins.
Yup
There is the freedom to watch Al Jazeera on the internet as well as BBC and RT.
Also BBC world service covers ignored regions by the MSM in the US such as the utter debacle going on right now in the Docratic Republic of the Congo – another unfolding horror
Excuse the typos. Apologies.Corrections:
There is the freedom to watch Al Jazeera on the Internet as well as BBC and RT.
Also BBC world service covers ignored regions by the MSM in the US such as the utter debacle going on right now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – another unfolding horror
“There is the freedom to watch Al Jazeera on the Internet as well as BBC and RT.”
For now.
ranney, you reminded me of a couple of good quotes from Huxley:
“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are humans.”
Forget PBS and NPR as well. They are bought and sold by the same corporate interests that are fueling this narrative. That so-called “intelligent” people still think of them as a good source of news is a cruel irony.
I stopped listening to National Public Radio twenty years ago. Two decades is a long time to despise a supposedly publicly funded media outlet free of political interference. But it became abundantly clear twenty years ago that NPR with its hosts and commentary was nakedly partisan and biased toward the republican party.
That was a time when Bill Clinton was being raked over the coals by Kenneth Starr and NPR dutifully reported every leak from Starr’s office as fact. This was an era where the media was conjoined with the republicans and that entanglement involved NPR as well.
I became thoroughly disgusted with the endless repeating of republican talking points and the limp wristed resistance to republican BS.
We wasted 6 years of our time spending many millions of dollars to arrive at an impeachment of a president based on evidence of a blue dress and testimony in front of a grand jury about the size and shape of the presidents penis. All of it covered in lurid detail and without an ounce of reason as if NPR was more of a a soap opera or a gossip filled tabloid and certainly not a publicly funded non partisan watchdog news organization.
If you were an American living in that time and were listening to NPR you were entertained with the latest leaks and endless speculations about whether or not the latest mostly not true information coming out of the Special Prosecutors office might be just enough to end the Clinton presidency.
File Gate
Travel Gate
Arlington Cemetery Gate
Jennifer Flowers Gate
Kathleen Willey Gate
Vince Foster Gate
Whitewater Gate
Lewinsky Gate
Kosovo Wag the Dog Gate
The list of investigations dragged on and on as NPR dutifully reported all the gossip as a new scandal ready to tear the Clinton Administration apart.
What did the Clinton administration do to deserve the excoriation from the press including NPR?
Went after Health Care
Went after Insurance
Went after Defense
Went after Pharmaceuticals
In fact they went after all these giant lobby groups in the first 100 days.
That is what doomed them. All the rest is BS propped up by our media including NPR and PBS to upend a presidency based on Russia Gate like stories and narratives formed in the gold plated bowels of right wing organizations which include all of our media including NPR.
William Colby CIA Director stated that “The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” Operation Mockingbird was designed to turn every media outlet into a government propaganda outlet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion
They succeeded wildly. Corporations desirous of emulating the control the CIA exerted over the media formed their own cable news outlets which were propaganda megaphones for the right wing.
The total control of the media is now in the hands of giant corporations and a republican controlled government. No need for the CIA to police them. Just a few loose ends to clean up so here they are:
End Net Neutrality because corporations need to stifle dissent and control the message just like they do on commercial media outlets.
Elect judges who will back up right wing efforts to rig elections and preserve the ability of corporate money to win elections and stack the government with corporate friendly politicians. An anonymous donor gave political groups supporting Niel Gorsuch for the Supreme Court 27 million dollars in order to ensure his confirmation.
Preserve and extend a privileged status to politicians via any means including control of the “free” press who do the bidding of corporate interests. This covers gerrymandering districts and funding ideological court clones to stack Congress and the Courts as well as the President.
Enact laws to enrich the donors of campaigns to elect conservatives at every level of government. They call these laws “Tax Breaks”. The tax breaks will go a long way to ensure that corporations will get to control government.
Use the power of the purse which giant corporations hold to boost any organization willing to accept money for toting the corporate line and also to attack any individual or group which tries to be an impartial observer.
Threaten public media with defunding unless it complies with the requirement that it serves conservatives.
Give total control of the government and the media over to special interests which are largely giant corporations that silence via the power of the purse any dissenting voices.
Own the media, the government and all of the branches to serve the interest of giant corporations.
Rig elections to ensure that only politicians who will do the bidding of the giant wealthy corporation are elected.
Continuously bombard the American people with a falsehood that they are subjected to liberal bias in the news in order to silence news organizations which might speak words that are counter to the corporate message.
Provide unlimited funds for politicians who will maximize the revenue of media outlets with no concern for the future of democracy.
CIA control of the media is no longer required. Corporations have seen the light and with massive corruption in our government they stand to profit tidily by not telling any of this to anyone.
Here is an article that looks at how Google is proposing to “protect us” from all things Russian:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.lt/2017/11/how-google-manages-fake-news.html
George Orwell was right, he was just a few decades ahead of his time. Non-government actors in the United States, including Google, have learned an important lesson from the 2016 election and we can pretty much assure ourselves that the next election will see significant massaging when it comes to what we read and hear.